Valley captures six medals on Day 2

Alamosa's Nelson Grant races down the far straight away during Friday's 4x400 meter preliminaries. The Mean Moose finished third in their heat and advance to Saturday's finals.

Courier Sports Editor

LAKEWOOD — Friday was a light day for San Luis Valley athletes here at the 2013 Colorado High School State Championships at Jefferson County Stadium in Lakewood. Even though it was a light day six medals were collected from the podium.

The day started off with the Class 2A 3,200 meter run and the San Luis Valley was represented by Del Norte senior Sumner Erhard. As the race progressed the championship came down to a kick down the final straight away. Lyons Lions teammates Marcel Such and Paul Roberts blazed down the last 100-meter stretch and as the race panned out Such nipped Roberts with times of 9:45.72 and 9:45.92, respectively.

Erhard finished seventh in the race with a time of 10:09.62, a two-second personal record.

The next medalist on the track was Del Norte’s 800 sprint medley team as they finished eighth in the event barely nipping Sangre de Cristo. They finished with a time of 1:56.01.

The boys’ open 800 meter run posted one medalist in Sangre de Cristo senior Mitchell Stagner, who finished seventh in 2:02.64.

The next race on the track was the 4x100 meter relay where the Centauri girls finished 16th with a time of 52.83. They failed to advance to finals.

The Falcons’ girls’ 4x400 team failed to advance but they had a season best time of 4:14.89.

Senior Hunter McDaniel led off the success for Alamosa as he advanced in the 300 meter hurdles by clinching the No. 8 seed going into tomorrow by clocking a time of 41.17.

The girls’ 4x400 meter relay team of Karlee Smith, Emily Sowards, Taylor Hackett and Miranda Glowczewski finished third in the first heat. They finished with a time of 4:08.17, the fifth fastest seed.

The boys’ 4x400 team of Samuel Bilderbeck, McDaniel, Nelson Grant and Jon Needham advanced by taking third in the second heat. They posted the sixth fastest time of 3:30.10.

Del Norte’s girls’ 4x400 meter team advanced to the finals with the eighth fastest time of 34:15.87.

Sangre de Cristo’s Heather Dieckman fell just .02 of a second short on advancing to the finals as she finished tenth in 48.53.

On the boy’s side Sanford’s Chance Canty and Antonito’s Noah Trujillo finished tenth and 11th with times of 44.10 and 44.16, respectively.

In the field events Sargent’s Kelci VanTreese earned a medal as she finished sixth with a leap of 16 feet, 1.5 inches.

Sangre de Cristo’s Jenna McKinley finished 12th in the shot put as she was able to get a personal record throw of 33 feet, 4.75 inches.